In this section

CATHEDRAL

The cathedral church of OUR
LADY, ST. GEORGE, AND ST.
DENYS, (fn. 1) while not challenging a
comparison with the great cathedrals of the country,
is a fine and dignified building, preserving far more
evidence of its architectural history than in the face of
the sweeping restorations and rebuildings it has undergone in modern times would seem possible. A project
for building an entirely new cathedral church was
mooted, but abandoned, about 1881. The present
church is 220ft. long from the east face of the Lady
chapel to the west face of the tower, and 116ft.
wide across the nave. It has a nave 85ft. long,
with double aisles and north and south porches, an
eastern arm 82ft. long, with north and south aisles
and chapels, an eastern Lady chapel, a chapter-house on
the south, and a large west tower with a west porch.
From the time of its becoming a collegiate church in
1421 its history can be set forth with some completeness, and of work older than this date enough
remains, or can be shown to have existed, to establish
the fact that before the middle of the 14th century
the church was practically as long as it is to-day,
the western porch always excepted, and had north
and south aisles to nave and chancel, together with
a Lady chapel and a west tower. The oldest work
still standing is to be found in the west arch
and lower parts of the walls of the Lady chapel
and in the eastern responds of the quire arcades.
It dates from c. 1330, and implies a lengthening,
or rebuilding, of the chancel of the old parish
church at this date, with the addition of an eastern
Lady chapel, the lower parts of the walls of which
still remain. The old west tower, pulled down
1864, is said to have been in part of 14th-century
date, though the recorded evidence is by no means
decisive on the point, but during the pulling down of
the nave arcades enough re-used material of the
former nave was recovered to show that it had aisles
and arcades of considerable scale in the 13th century.
The oldest worked stone yet found on the site is the
relief of an angel holding a scroll with an inscription, perhaps 10th-century work; but with this
exception no details earlier than the 13th century
have come to light. The traditions of the occupation
of this or a neighbouring site in Saxon times by a
wooden building, though embellished by a good deal
of circumstantial evidence, seem to have no more solid
foundation than the similar stories told of so many
ancient sites in England. There may well have been
a wooden building here as elsewhere in early times,
but the attempts of various local historians to identify
its remains with beams at Ordsall, Trafford, Stand, &c.
need not be taken seriously. A fine 13th-century
church certainly existed here, and was perhaps not
the first stone building on the site. It had aisles
to its nave, and perhaps to its chancel also,
but its plan must remain uncertain. In a building of such a scale the possibility of a cruciform
plan with a central tower must always be taken into
account, and it is tempting to see in the positions of
the west walls of the Derby chapel, and what was once
the Jesus chapel, evidences of former north and south
transepts. It would be also quite in the normal course
of development if it could be shown that the building
of a west tower in the 14th century marked the
destruction of an older central tower about that time,
and the conversion of the church from a cruciform to a
continuously aisled plan. Unfortunately five centuries of rebuilding and alteration have reduced any
such speculations to the level of an academic exercise,
and in any case there is ample interest in the architectural history of the building from the 15th century
onwards.

John Huntington, first warden of the college,
1422–58, 'built the choir of Manchester Church
with the aisles on both sides, being in length thirty
yards, and in breadth twenty yards, from the two
great pinacles, where the organs stood betwixt, to the
east end of the church.' This work seems to have
followed the lines of the older building, but very
little of it remains in its original position, both
arcades of the quire and the north wall of its north
aisle having been rebuilt late in the 15th century;
so that it is only in the east walls of quire and aisles,
and the south wall of the south aisle, that any of
Huntington's work can now exist as he left it. The
spacing of the two eastern bays of the south wall of
the south aisle, 12 ft. 9 in. from centre to centre, is
practically that of four of the six bays of the Derby
chapel, and if it be assumed that the width of the
third bay of the south aisle, containing the entrance
to the chapter-house, preserves that of the bay which
opened to a chapter-house built at this place by
Huntington, there is space between it and the west
end of the aisle for three more bays of about 12ft.
9 in. each. This dimension, then, probably represents the normal width of the bays of Huntington's
aisles, and makes it possible that some of the bays of
this width in the outer walls of the chapels afterwards added to the aisles may be in part Huntington's work moved outwards and reset.

The main arcades are of six bays, with an average
width of 13 ft. 5 in. from centre to centre. At the
east end, where they abut on the responds of the
14th-century work, there is a width of 22 ft. across
the main span, but at the west of the quire the width
is 25 ft. 3 in. This irregularity is evidently due to a
desire to get as great a width as possible for the
stalls of the collegiate quire, and is, as it seems, the
work of James Stanley, the second warden of that
name, after 1485. The details of the arcades, however, are of earlier character than would have been
the case if they had been built anew at this time, and it
must be concluded that the arcades are Huntington's
work reset, and adapted to the later arrangements.

Huntington died in 1458, and Ralph Langley, who
became warden in 1465, carried on the general scheme
of rebuilding. Till his time the nave seems to have
been of 13th-century date, and in order to bring it into
harmony with the new quire he rebuilt it from the
ground, using up a good deal of the old materials.
His work has been even more unfortunate than that
of his predecessor, the outer walls of his nave-aisles
having been entirely removed in later alterations, while
the north and south arcades of his nave are now represented by faithful but entirely modern copies, and
only the south arcade occupies its original position.
The details of the work are evidently inspired by
those of Huntington's quire, and are of the same
excellent and refined style. When in 1883 both
arcades of the nave were taken down, it became
evident that the north arcade had been previously
taken down and rebuilt, its jointing being much
inferior to that of the south arcade. The nave is
not on the same axis as the tower, but it is clear
from the position of the south arcade that it was
so at first, and it was doubtless at the rebuilding of
the north arcade that the irregularity came into
being, the arcade being set up a little to the north
of its former line. The object of this widening
was to make the nave symmetrical with the quire
after its rearrangement by Stanley, and the rebuilding
is no doubt due to him. The panelling on the
east wall of the tower must also be part of his work,
and it is probable, in spite of a tradition that the
tower was in the main the work of George West,
warden, about 1518, that Stanley completed this part
of the church also.

The general development of the church, up to this
point, followed without material difference the scheme
common to so many Lancashire churches, which consists of a long clearstoried chancel and nave with
north and south aisles, a west tower, and a pair of
stair turrets at the junction of chancel and nave.
The north stair turret must have been rebuilt when
the nave was widened northward, and the chancelarch must also be of Stanley's work, but the south
turret may be of Langley's time. It is to be noted
that the diameter of the stair it contains is 4 ft. 6 in.,
as compared with 5ft. in the north turret.

In the 15th century the church began to be enlarged by the addition of chantry chapels. The
first to be built was that of St. Nicholas, or the
Trafford chantry, on the south of the two east
bays of the south aisle of the nave; its date seems
doubtful, but the original of the present building
was probably set up in 1486. Next came the
Trinity chapel, built by William Radcliffe of Ordsall,
about 1498, at the west of the former north porch of
the nave, whose site is now included in the outer north
aisle. In 1506 the Jesus chapel, or Byrom chantry,
filling the space between the Trafford chapel and the
chapter-house, was built by Richard Bexwicke. The
small Hulme chapel adjoined it on the south-east. In
1507 St. James's chapel, afterwards called the Strangeways chapel, was built at the north-east of the nave, by
one of the Hulmes of Halton, or by one of the Chetham
family. In 1508 St. George's chapel was built by
William Galey to the west of St. Nicholas's chapel.
There appears to be no precise record of the building
of the north chapel of the nave, between St. James's
chapel and the old north porch. In 1513 the large
Derby chapel was finished and dedicated in honour
of St. John the Baptist by James Stanley, fifth
warden, on the north side of the north aisle of the
quire, equal in length to it, and 24 ft. wide. The
Ely chapel, opening northward from the second bay
of this chapel, was finished in 1515 by Sir John
Stanley, son of the warden, who became Bishop of
Ely in 1506. The Lady chapel, built early in
the 14th century, is said to have been rebuilt in
1518 by George West, warden 1516–28, but this
seems doubtful from the slender architectural evidence
which remains. The chapel seems to have been
again rebuilt in the 18th century, with tracery which
was a curious copy of 14th-century work, and all the
external stonework has since been renewed.

The college was dissolved in 1547, but re-established
in 1553; the fabric of the church probably did not
suffer any serious damage at this date. Again dissolved
in 1646, it was again re-established under Charles II,
and through the 17th and 18th centuries underwent
a good deal of repair in its external stonework. In 1815
a barbarous work of mutilation, in the name of repair,
was begun, all the internal stonework of the nave and
clearstory, with the north aisle, chancel-arch, and towerarch, being hacked over with picks and then covered
with a coat of cement, completely destroying the old
face of the stonework and seriously weakening the
arches. The screens in the nave chapels were also
destroyed and the roofs of the aisles hacked about and
covered with plaster. Galleries were set up in the
nave, and the irregular line of arches separating the
southern chapels from the south aisle of the nave
was destroyed and replaced by a uniform arcade which
when finished was coated like the older work with
cement.

A series of repairs undertaken in a very different
spirit, but even more far-reaching in the matter of
destroying the old work, began in 1863 with a rebuilding of the west tower, nothing of the former
tower beyond part of its east wall being preserved.
In 1870 the external masonry of the clearstory, which
had been entirely renewed as lately as 1855, was
again renewed, and the design altered in several particulars, and in 1872 the main arcades of the nave
were taken down and rebuilt in new stone, accurately
copying the old. The south porch, which had been
rebuilt late in the 17th century by a Manchester
merchant named Bibby, was partly reconstructed in
1871, and entirely rebuilt in 1891, while the present
north porch dates from 1888, and a baptistery was
added at the west end of the south range of nave
chapels in 1892.

The arcade between these chapels and the south
aisle, built in 1815, was rebuilt in 1885; the corresponding arcade on the north side of the north aisle
was also taken down and rebuilt about the same time,
and the east walls of the chapels of St. James and
St. Nicholas were removed in 1882–4, and arches
put in their place. The north wall of the former
chapel was also destroyed, and rebuilt in a line with
that of the Trinity chapel. The Fraser chapel,
opening on the south of the east bay of the south aisle
of the chancel, was built in 1887, and the latest
addition to the plan is the large porch built in front
of the west face of the west tower in 1900. With
such a history it is not to be wondered at that there
is not an inch of old stonework on the outside of
Manchester Cathedral; but, new as it is, the whole
surface is toned down to a uniform blackness by the
smoke-laden air of the city. (fn. 2)

DETAILED DESCRIPTION.

The Lady chapel
is only 15 ft. deep, and is lighted on three sides by
pairs of two-light windows, with tracery which appears
to be a clumsy copy of 14th-century work. The bases
of its east, north, and south walls may well be of this
date, and its west arch of three moulded orders with
engaged filleted shafts in the jambs is good work of
c. 1330. On the west face of the wall above it is a
panelled four-centred arch, which seems to be marked
as the work of Warden Huntington by his rebus of a
hunting scene and a tun, and the chapel is separated
from the 'retroquire' by a wooden screen much restored by Sir Gilbert Scott, but preserving some old
work, including a St. George over the door. It probably dates from the recorded founding of a chantry
here by Warden West in 1518.

The present arrangement of the eastern arm of the
church is that the two western bays are taken up by
the quire stalls, and the altar stands between the
eastern pair of columns of the main arcades, against a
modern stone reredos, while screens inclose the quire
and presbytery on both sides. The back of the
reredos is covered by a piece of tapestry made in
1661, and representing the deaths of Ananias and
Sapphira. The lower parts of the screens, and the
altar rails, are in wrought ironwork of the 18th century, of very good detail, while the upper parts are of
late Gothic woodwork. The stalls are very fine
examples of the same period, having been finished
about 1508. There are twelve on each side, and
three returned stalls at the west on either side of the
quire entrance, making thirty in all. The arms of
de la Warr occur on a bench-end, in reference to the
founder of the college, and on two others are a quarterly coat of Stanley, Man, Lathom, and a checky coat
which seems to refer to Joan Goushill wife of Sir
Thomas Stanley, ob. 1458. An eagle's claw on one
of the misericordes is a Stanley badge, and the legend
of the eagle and child is on one of the bench-ends
which bears the Stanley arms. Another shield has a
cheveron between seven nails and in chief the letters
I B, for John Bexwicke, impaling the arms of the
Mercers' Company.

The stalls have tall and rich canopies in two stages,
and a coved cresting with hanging open tracery, the
details being different on the two sides, and there are
carved foliate bosses on the carved arms of the seats,
and a very fine series of carved misericordes. Some
of these have allusions to the Stanley family, but the
majority belong to the type of secular and often
humorous subjects common on these carvings. They
are of very great merit in some instances, though,
unfortunately, a good deal broken. The hare cooking
the hunter and his dog, the pilgrim robbed by
monkeys, the man who has broken his wife's cookingpot, two men playing backgammon, &c., are among
the best of them.

The quire arcades, which have been already referred
to as perhaps being Huntington's work, have panelled
spandrels and a line of cresting over the arches.
Slender shafts run up from the piers to clustered
capitals at the springing of the clearstory windows,
which are of five cinquefoiled lights with tracery.
From the capitals, on which stand eagles bearing
shields, spring the cusped braces of the low-pitched
roof, with its rich traceried panels and carved bosses
at the intersections of the heavy moulded timbers.
Huntington's rebus occurs on the roof, and at the
repairs carried out by Mr. Crowther evidence was
found that some of the timbers were parts of a differently-arranged roof, re-used by Stanley, and probably
belonging to Huntington's quire, which must have
had a clearstory of much the same height as at present.
It seems to have had in each bay a pair of two-light
windows instead of the present arrangement. Two
dates, 1638 and 1742, are cut on the roof, marking
repairs done in those years.

At the west of the quire is the screen, a fine piece
of woodwork which has been a good deal restored, the
coved canopy and front of the loft having been added
by Scott in 1872. On the loft stands the organ,
given in that year, and replacing one made in 1684
by Father Smith, and renewed in 1742.

The Derby chapel, or Chapel of St. John the
Baptist, is separated from the north aisle of the quire
by an arcade of five bays with four-centred arches, and
details which are much plainer than those of the main
arcades of the quire. Its north elevation does not
correspond to the arcade, being of six unequal bays,
each set in a wall arcade of excellent detail, perhaps
Huntington's work reused. The first, third, fourth,
and fifth bays contain four-light windows flanked on the
inside by blank tracery and canopied niches, filling up
the remaining spaces within the wall arcades, whose
arches also form the heads of the windows. On the
outside the blank tracery does not occur, and the
windows in consequence have segmental heads. At
the west the chapel opens by a wide arch and a flight
of four steps to the north chapel of the nave, the site
of the former chapel of St. James. The chapel is
closed in by contemporary wooden screens, the
entrance being from the south-west, where, over the
door, are the arms of Sir John Stanley, son of Warden
Stanley, impaling the quartered coat of Handforth,
with a modern inscription on brass giving the date of
its completion as 1513. The Ely chapel, opening
from the north-east of the Derby chapel, is entered
through a screen of early 16th-century date, moved
here from St. James's chapel, and was completed after
Warden Stanley's death by Sir John Stanley, being
intended to contain his tomb. The tomb now in the
chapel is a copy made in 1859 of the original altartomb, and on it is fixed the mutilated brass figure of
Stanley in his episcopal dress as Bishop of Ely. The
design of the chapel harmonizes with the Derby
chapel, but being wider from east to west than the
other bays, it has a north window of five lights instead
of four. The eastern bay of the south aisle of the
quire opens southward to the chapel, built in 1890
in memory of Bishop Fraser and containing his tomb;
while the second bay, with its four-light south window,
resembles the north side of the Derby chapel, and
probably preserves the old design of Huntington's aisle,
though the masonry is for the most part renewed.
The third bay contains the entrance to the chapterhouse, probably the work of Stanley, and consisting
of two deeply-recessed four-centred doorways set in a
wide panelled recess. The chapter-house itself is
octagonal, with a modern wooden vault, and is lighted
by four-light windows in its four outer faces; its
present design is probably due to Stanley, though
Huntington seems to have built a chapter-house
here, which, according to some evidence quoted in
Mr. Worthington's book on the cathedral, was
octagonal as at present. The foundations, however,
of part of a square building are said to have been
found here, and are claimed as Huntington's chapterhouse, and it can only be said that, no further investigation being at present possible, the question
must be left as a contested point. The remainder of
the aisle is taken up by a library, vestry, and passage,
occupying the area of the old Jesus chapel. Its use
as a library dates from the end of the 16th century,
when its then owners, the Pendletons, sold it to the
city of Manchester. The small Hulme chapel which
opened southward from its east bay, after being rebuilt
in 1810, has been pulled down, and no trace of it now
exists. A door opens from the library to the chapterhouse, which is panelled in oak with seats round the
walls, and a chair for the bishop on the south side.
From the crown of the vault hangs a fine chandelier.

The nave arcades, the history of which has already
been given, are of six bays, and faithfully reproduce
Langley's work, which they succeed. In general design
they closely resemble the arcades of the quire, having
the same traceried spandrels and line of cresting over
the arches; but the detail is simpler, though still very
effective. The clearstory windows are of five lights,
and before restoration were entirely without cusps;
these have, however, been added in the new work.
Externally their effect is richer than that of the clearstory of the eastern arm, as there is tracery in the
spandrels over the windows and pairs of angels
holding shields at the bases of the pinnacles which
mark each bay, neither of which features occurs to the
east of the chancel arch. The turrets flanking this
arch break the long line of windows very satisfactorily,
rising above the parapets and ending in crocketed
spirelets, while internally they make a very effective
feature, masking the junction between the nave and
quire arcades, and by their size and solidity atoning
for the rather insignificant chancel-arch. The nave
clearstory seems to have had much the same history as that of the quire, and as built by Langley
probably had two windows in each bay, an arrangement altered to that which now obtains at Stanley's
rebuilding of the north arcade. This was deduced by
Mr. Crowther from the evidence of re-used timbers
found by him in the nave roof, which had been
adapted to the wider span caused by the setting back
of the north arcade.

There are practically no remains of old work in
the aisles and chapels of the nave. St. James's chapel,
at the east end of the outer north aisle, has entirely
disappeared. It was built about 1507, before the
present Derby chapel, and originally had a five-light east
window, and the plinth of its east wall is said to remain
beneath the present floor-level. It was afterwards
called the Strangeways chapel, and Hollinworth (fn. 3)
tells us that there was in it a picture of the Resurrection, and beneath it an inscription reciting a pardon
of 26,026 days for all who there said five paters, five
aves, and a credo. A piscina was found at the southeast angle of the chapel when it was taken down, and
has been replaced near its old position. The chapel
was narrower than the outer north aisle, but its north
wall has now been carried out to the same line as the
rest. The Trinity chapel, at the west end of the aisle,
has also left no traces of its arrangements. The north
porch, built in 1888 in memory of Mr. James Craven,
is a very good piece of modern work, with a stone
vault in two bays and an upper story used as a muniment room, and built entirely of stone; to the east of
the porch is a registry office.

On the south side of the nave the south wall of the
chapel of St. Nicholas, at the south-east, stands on its
original line, but has been entirely renewed, and the
south porch and south-west baptistery are modern
additions. The old south porch stood opposite the
fifth bay of the modern arcade. It was of a single
story, built in 1685 by one Bibby, and afterwards
rebuilt by the parish; it seems, however, to have
retained some 13th-century detail, and the springers
of a vault of that date. The present south porch
follows in general design the north porch, being
vaulted in two bays with a parvise over.

In St. George's chapel, west of St. Nicholas's
chapel, hung an image of St. George, and in Hollinworth's time the chapel was called the Radcliffe chapel;
the arcade on the south side, carrying on the line
of the south wall of the chapel of St. Nicholas, is a
modern insertion.

The west tower retains nothing of its old masonry
except its east arch and the wall in which it is set,
ornamented with shallow cinquefoiled stone panelling,
which is hacked over to make a key for the cement
coat put on it in 1815 and since removed. The old
tower stood till 1863, and was of four stages, 124 ft.
high, with a panelled parapet and groups of three
pinnacles at each angle, and a smaller pinnacle in the
middle of each face. The belfry windows were pairs
of two-light openings with transoms and tracery, the
wall over them being panelled in continuation of the
tracery, with recesses for images on either side. The
west doorway was two-centred with continuous
mouldings, and over it was a fine five-light window
with a transom and tracery, the buttresses on either
side of the window having canopied niches at this
level. The present tower is some 15 ft. higher than
its predecessor, 139 ft. as against 124 ft., but is otherwise not unlike it, except in the presence of elaborate
clock-faces below the belfry stage. Its outline is good,
and forms a welcome contrast to its rather prosaic
surroundings, the westward fall of the ground adding
largely to its effect of height. In late years a large
porch has been built on to its west face, coming up to
the street frontage. The general exterior of the
church at the present time is so much disfigured by
its blackness that it is difficult to appreciate its good
points. The same building set in a clean country
town would command a great deal of admiration, but
here it has to pay the penalty of its position in a great
manufacturing city. With the interior, however,
the case is different, and the dull light often adds
immensely to the dignity of the nave, with its four
ranges of columns and richly carved roofs. Some of
the modern glass in the nave clearstory is of very fine
colour, and the magnificent quire stalls and screen
would be imposing in any church. The nave was
formerly full of galleries, the oldest being on the south
side, set up in 1617 by Humphrey Booth. The
Strangeways gallery on the north, and the Chetham
gallery on the west, were both made in 1660, and in
1698 another at the north-west was added. The
last of the galleries was removed in 1884, to the great
benefit of the general effect.

A little old glass in the east window of the chapterhouse is all that is left of what must once have been a
very rich adornment. There are figures of our Lady,
St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. George, and a few smaller
pieces. Some glass from the cathedral is now in
the chancel of Messingham Church, Lincs. A good
deal was surviving in the 17th century, and Hollinworth mentions St. Michael and angels in the east
window of the south aisle, and St. Augustine and
St. Ambrose in the corresponding window on the
north: presumably the quire aisle are meant. At the
'uppermost end of the outmost north ally,' near
St. James's chapel, was a window with the Trinity
and the Crucifixion. (fn. 4)

The church has lost most of the many monuments
which it formerly possessed, such as the two alabaster
effigies of Radcliffes mentioned by Hollinworth on
the north side of the quire. Warden Huntington's
brass, 1458, formerly in the middle of the quire, was
afterwards put in a vault below, but in 1907 was
replaced in the quire, and retains his figure in Mass
vestments, with the very fitting inscription on a scroll,
'Domine dilexi decorem domus tuae.' Warden
Stanley's brass has been already mentioned, and in the
chapter-house is a triangular brass plate surrounded
by shields of arms, commemorating the Ordsalls of
Ordsall Hall. (fn. 5) An interesting but quite modern
seated figure of Humphrey Chetham, founder of the
hospital and library, set up in 1853, is at the east
end of the north aisle of the quire, and in the south
aisle is a copper plate in a carved oak frame to Warden
Heyrick, 1667. On the back of the north range of
quire stalls are fastened two brass plates to Antony
Mosley, 1607, and Oswald Mosley, 1630, and there
are a number of good 18th-century monuments in
various parts of the church. There are recent
monuments to Hugh Birley, M.P. for Manchester,
Thomas Fleming, 1852, and Dean Maclure. Two
early sculptured stones were found during the
restorations, and there are brasses in the chapter-house
and library. (fn. 6)

The present organ in its Gothic case set on the
rood-loft succeeds one made by Father Smith about
1684. This, after having been sent to St. Saviour's
Church, Chetham, was returned to the cathedral, and
set up in the north aisle of the quire.

The list of cathedral plate includes—

Two chalices, 1584–5, each inscribed, 'This
belongs to the Collegiate Church of Manchester.'

Two chalices, 1626, each inscribed, 'Given to the
Church of Manchester by Margarett Nugent, Widdowe, 1626.'

Three patens, 1676–7, each inscribed, 'This
belongs to the Collegiate Church of Manchester, and
was bought at ye parish charge, Anno Dom. 1676.'
Almsdish, 1675–6, same inscription as patens, but
date-letter a year earlier.

Small flagon, 1697–8, with the mark of Peter
Harracke; no inscription.

Pitcher flagon, 1701, inscribed, 'The gift of Mrs.
Mary Holbrook to the Collegiate Church of Manchester 1701,' with the mark of John Ruslem.

Chalice, 1875, given in memory of Canon Richson
by an unknown donor. Silver gilt.

Four beaker cups made for the Scots church of the
Scots Factors at Campvere, Holland, in 1620 (no
marks), presented by Earl Egerton of Tatton. They
are numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4, and bear Latin and
English inscriptions, the latter reading:

Footnotes

1. For a description written about
1650 see Richard Hollinworth, Mancuniensis, 46, 47, 119. In Hibbert-Ware's
Manch. Foundations (1830) will be found
plans of the church before and after the
changes made in 1815, as well as many
views of the building. A supplementary
volume was issued in 1848, relating to
the collegiation. See also Glynne, Lancs.
Churches (Chet. Soc.), 115–122; Lancs.
and Ches. Antiq. Soc. xi, 21; xiv, 62. A
detailed architectural description by Mr.
T. Locke Worthington was issued in
1884, but the most authoritative work is
the Architectural History by J. S. Crowther,
1893.
In 1649 in consequence of the increase
of the congregations, seats were placed
'where the organs lately stood;' and
eight years later through a benefaction
by Richard Hollinworth, who was morning
lecturer, a second gallery was built;
Manch. Corp. D.
Bishop Nicholson in 1704 thought the
church 'a neat and noble fabric.'
The 'evidences' of the town were in
1648 ordered to be kept in the room over
the church porch; Manch. Ct. Leet Rec.
iv, 26.

2. A complete list of the repairs between 1638 and 1884 will be found in T. L. Worthington's Historical Account of the
Cathedral Church of Manchester (pp. 49–51).

6. See Trans. Hist. Soc. (new ser.),
xiv, 205, for notes taken between 1591
and 1636; Thornely, Lancs. and Ches.
Brasses, 15, 39, 113; and Lancs. and Ches.
Antiq. Soc. xxiii, 172, for the ancient
sculpture of St. Michael. There are
copies of monumental inscriptions and
gravestones in the interior and the graveyard in the Owen MSS.

8. Extracts ranging between 1573 and
1750 have been printed by Mr. John
Owen, 1879. The Owen MSS. in the
Free Reference Library include two transcripts (one alphabetically arranged) of the
16th to 18th-century portions.